There are many businesses which rely on the automatic feeding of documents into optical equipment in order to process the documents. Typical optical equipment utilized in such industries include optical scanning equipment for OCR numbering, MICR check reading equipment, standard microfilming or microfiche equipment, and video imaging equipment, etc. Often times such businesses are presented with numerous different sizes of documents which are intermixed with each other, and which must remain together in a particular sequence Automatic sheet feeding devices have limitations on the size variances that can be tolerated, and hand feeding devices also have limitations on sheet size variations. Such limitations cause additional time and labor in preparing documents for optical action.
According to the present invention, the expense and difficulties associated with conventional feeding of intermixed sizes of documents into optical acting equipment are minimized. However, document integrity is maintained, and it is possible to insure that a particular sequencing of documents is provided. These advantageous results are effectively accomplished by utilizing particular document carriers.
According to one aspect of the present invention, the document carrier for efficiently transporting documents to be optically acted upon is provided. The document carrier comprises: A quadrate first part of transparent material which allows clear, non-interfering, scanning or microfilming of a document underlying it. A quadrate second part of non-adhesive material providing a clear discrimination background for the document, and allowing readable indicia to be placed thereon (the first and second parts have generally the same exterior length or width). And, means for attaching the first part to the second part to allow placement and positioning of at least one document therebetween.
The first part is preferably of transparent plastic sheet material, such as polypropylene or polystyrene film, having approximately a 0.92 gauge. The second part is preferably of white sheet material, such as white bond or offset paper, having a weight of about 20-24 lb. bond paper, or an equivalent weight (i.e., about 70 pounds) for offset paper. A number of different configurations can be provided for defining pockets for the positioning of documents therein. In one embodiment, the means for attaching the first part to the second part comprises adhesive for attaching the parts together along three sides of the first part to form a pocket, with the fourth side of the first part unconnected to allow insertion of the document into the pocket between the first and second parts. The adhesive may comprise three strips of adhesive including a first strip with a width of about 1 inch. Multiple pockets may be formed. A number of different dimensions may be utilized, but a standard dimension would be about 10.times.121/2 inches for the entire carrier, with the pocket or pockets having approximately 81/2.times.11 inch dimensions. A second part may have a width or length dimension slightly larger than that of the first part to define a second part portion not covered by the first part. Indicia may be provided on the second part unexposed portion, or another portion of the second part, which indicia also may be read by optical equipment with which the document carrier is intended to be used.
As used in the present specification and claims, the term "optically acting upon" means a review, by optical means, of a document with optical equipment for the purpose of transferring information from the document into another form, such as a mag tape, digital or analog information for a computer system, microfilm, or microfiche. The term "optical equipment" as used in the present specification and claims encompasses OCR, bar code, MICR, and light scanning and reading equipment, video imaging equipment, and standard microfilm or microfiche producing equipment.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of optically acting upon variously sized documents without optical equipment, utilizing substantially uniformly sized, pocketed, document carriers, each having a transparent first part and a second part having clear discrimination and document identification functionality. The method comprises steps of: (a) inserting documents having a size smaller than the substantially uniformly sized document carriers into pocketed document carriers so that they are held in pockets between the transparent first part and second part of each carrier; and (b) feeding the document carriers in sequence past the optical equipment. Documents having substantially the same size as the uniformly sized document carriers also are preferably provided, and step (b) is accomplished by feeding documents of substantially the same size as the document carriers with the document carriers, past the optical equipment, in predetermined sequence.
The method also preferably comprises the further step of placing indicia on the second part of at least some of the document carriers, which indicia is optically acted upon along with the documents, or is at least human readable. Two portions of each document carrier first part may sandwich the second part of the document carrier between them, in which case step (a) is practiced by placing two different documents into operative association with each document carrier, one on each side of the second part of the document carrier, between the second part and a portion of the first part of the document carrier. Further, the second part may have a length or width dimension larger than the first part to define the second part portion not covered by the first part, in which case step (a) is further practiced by holding the second part portion not covered by the first part while inserting at least one document into a pocket between the first and second parts.
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide for the effective and efficient handling of non-uniformly sized documents in association with optical equipment. This and another objects of the invention will become clear from an inspection of the detailed description of the invention and from the appended claims.